RRSS News Online Newspaper ng mga Pinoy
Residents of Eastern Visayas who want to take doctor of medicine is getting closer to achieving their dream, that is after the House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading the establishment of a state-run college of medicine in the area.
House Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan has said that the establishment of College of Medicine at Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) would pave way for the establishment of Easter Samar’s first teaching hospital.
While college of medicine serves as place to learn knowledge as foundation in medicine practice, a teaching hospital is a facility affiliated with a medical school to train future healthcare professionals while also providing patient care and conducting research.
What sets teaching hospital from community hospitals is that the latter primarily focus on patient care.
The teaching hospital would serve as a practical learning environment for medical students, resident doctors, nursing and midwifery students, and other healthcare trainees.
Libanan further said that once enacted into law, medical education and healthcare services in the area would be strengthened.
“Our vision is to eventually establish a teaching hospital alongside the new ESSU College of Medicine,” he said. Adding that the teaching hospitals would be involved in three main areas: patient care, education, and research.
In an FB post by Roy Casillano, he said that access to doctors in the area has long been measured in hours of travel, hence the program is an institutional leap that promises to recalibrate healthcare access across Eastern Visayas.
“By situating medical education within the province itself, ESSU is effectively localizing both the training, and potentially, the retention of future doctors,” he shared.
Casillano emphasized that while annual tuition in private institutions for doctor of medicine course costs exceed six figures, he said ESSU have set a ceiling of P40,000.00 which makes their MD program as among the most affordable in the country.
